Category: Pokerstars

Poker Stars Road to 100 Billion Nears 65

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The latest Poker Stars milestone hands promotion has begun and this time it’s heading straight for the 65 billion mark. Part of the larger Road to 100 Billion promotion, oftentimes as Poker Stars nears a particular milestone number of hands dealt, they run a promotion offering big cash bonuses to all the players participating in the incremental minor milestone hands leading up to the major milestone, with even bigger rewards for the winners of those hands. The latest of these promotions has been the Road to 100 Billion and currently that road is about to hit the 65 billion hand milestone.

At the time of this writing, Poker Stars has dealt 64,603,040,777 hands and promises to deal the 65 billionth before the month of July 2011 is out. Be playing at any cash game table for any of the millionth hands between 64.7 billion and 65 billion and you’ll win a cash prize. The player who wins the 65 billionth hand stands to win at least $65,000, on top of however much money he or she wins from the pot of that hand.

The amount that players win for participating in a milestone hand depends on how many VPPs they earned in the previous 50 hands leading up to that milestone. Multiply that number by $50 and add $50 and you’ll determine your cash prize for participation in a milestone hand. Double it if you’re the winner of that hand.

In this stage of the Road to 100 Billion hands promotion, PokerStars will honor 300 milestone hands leading up to the mega-milestone of 65 billion. After that, the next Road to 100 Billion promotion will occur as the site approaches its 70 billionth hand.

Poker Stars Invites Players to Challenge Viktor Blom Heads-Up

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Poker Stars invites all comers to challenge Viktor “Isildur1” Blom in heads-up poker with the Superstar Showdown.

The PokerStars SuperStar Showdown consists of a single session lasting exactly 2,500 hands spread across four tables of NL Hold’em tables and PL Omaha with stakes of at least $50/$100. Whichever player wins the other’s bankroll before those 2,500 hands are up is the winner. If no one busts out then the player showing a profit at the end of 2,500 hands is declared the winner.

Poker Stars will not be funding challengers in the SuperStar Showdown, meaning you have to supply your own bankroll. But if you can do it, then this is a chance to play against one of the world’s best and most notorious online cash game poker players. Poker Stars requires challengers to place the equivalent of 1,500 big blinds (or $150,000 at $50/$100 stakes) in escrow with the site in order to secure the match. This indicates to PokerStars and Isildur1 that you’re actually serious about your challenge.

Since December of 2010, 11 players have participated in the SuperStar Showdown (or 10 players really; Daniel Negreanu played twice). Of all those matches only the first challenger, Isaac Haxton, and Daniel Negreanu on his second attempt managed to best Isidlur1. To challenge Viktor Blom to a SuperStar Showdown of your own, email PokerStars at showdown at pokerstars dot com.

You can find the SuperStars Showdown tables under the Showdown tab in the No Limit/Pot Limit part of the Hold’em Cash Game lobby.

Poker Stars Reveals 2011 WCOOP Schedule

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The Poker Stars World Championship of Online Poker is one of each year’s most eagerly anticipated online poker tournament series, with a main event first prize last year that topped $2 million. Now the time is nearing for another incarnation of the PokerStars WCOOP.

The 2011 PokerStars WCOOP starts September 4 and will consist of 62 events. The schedule features buy-ins that range from $109 to $10,300. One of those $10,300 high roller events takes place on day 1. Another takes place exactly two weeks later, on Sunday September 18, and this time it’s a heads-up event. The main event, taking place one week after that on Sunday September 25, has a $5,200 buy-in and an as yet undisclosed guaranteed prize pool. Each weekend day of the series between and including September 4 and 25 will feature two WCOOP 2011 events, while each weekday in that period will feature three events.

In fact, none of the prize pools for the 2011 WCOOP have been released yet. But at least, with the schedule out, players can start to clear their calendar. And for those who enjoy a bit of variety in their poker, these are not just No Limit Hold’em games either. Some are Pot Limit or Fixed Limit. Some are Omaha, Stud or Draw, even HORSE. The schedule features Freezeouts, Shootouts and Knockouts, events with 6-max tables, 10-minute levels and 8 games mixed.

As they do every year, Poker Stars will be holding satellite qualifiers awarding free seats into each of the WCOOP 2011 tournaments.

Poker Stars Launches New Brasil Poker Tour

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Poker Stars is renowned for its live poker tours visiting exotic locales across the globe to stir up some high-stakes poker tournament action. The recent addition to the barrage of PokerStars sponsored live poker tours takes players down to South America – Brazil, specificially. It’s called the Brasil Poker Tour and it currently features three stops, all taking place in Brazil.

The inaugural Brazilian poker tour event takes place in less than a month in Sao Paulo. BPT Sao Paul runs July 21 – 25, 2011 and features a buy-in of approximately $1,400 US (or R $2,000 + $300).

The second event of the new Brasil Poker Tour is BPT Florianopolis, taking place October 6 – 10, 2011 for the same buy-in as the BPT Sao Paulo main event.

The third event on the BPT Brasil schedule is the season one grand finale. The location, dates and buy-ins have yet to be announced.

The Brasil Poker Tour will not compete directly with the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), also a PokerStars enterprise. In much the same way that the relatively new Eureka Poker Tour is not a competitor to the European Poker Tour (EPT), but an offshoot of it, the BPT is an offshoot of the LAPT.

As is typical with PokerStars live poker tours, players can qualify for Brasil Poker Tour through satellite qualifier tournaments at the Poker Stars site. Prize packages include the main event buy-in, accommodations and some travel and expense funds. Even players in the United States can try to qualify for the Brasil Poker Tour at PokerStars.net, the free, play money sister site to PokerStars.com, which will be holding freeroll tournaments into the series’ events.

Poker Stars The Big Game Returns Tonight

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Tonight, June 27th, 2011, the second season begins of Poker Stars The Big Game, a chance for 5 poker bigwigs and 1 poker unknown to face-off in high-stakes cash game action.

The 5 bigwigs starting of season 2 of The Big Game are David “Viffer” Peat, Tony G. (of Team Party Poker) Scott Seiver and Team PokerStars’ own Daniel Negreanu. Former NBA men’s basketball superstar Bobby Sura will also be at the table, which boasts a $100,000 buy-in. As will be Gonzales Cannon, the aptly-named first Loose Cannon of season 2, whose entry comes courtesy of Poker Stars.

The Loose Cannon of the week in The Big Game is a player who wins that spot via qualifier tournaments on the PokerStars site. The Loose Cannon is allowed to keep any amounts they win above $100,000 (the cost of their buy-in) at the end of the week. The lineup of pros and Loose Cannons alike changes each week. Upcoming stars to look for in future weeks of The Big Game, which airs now until August 5, include Phil Hellmuth, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Barry Greenstein Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Vanessa Selbst and reigning World Series of Poker champion Jonathan Duhamel. Among the non-poker pro players appearing in future weeks of The Big Game Season 2 are Guy Laliberte, creator of Cirque du Soleil, and Nick Cassavetes, famous film director.

All episodes of The Big Game air on pokerstars.tv at noon on weekdays. Extra footage will also be available online, including detailed player statistics, unseen hands, and moments that couldn’t be shown on regular Internet television.

Poker Stars Local Promotions, Leagues and Events

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PoekrstarsNo matter where you live in the world (as long as it’s not the United States) Poker Stars is likely to have a special promotion, league or tournament event just for you and your fellow countrymen (and countrywomen). To give you an idea, take a look at this sampling of current offerings.

The Causeway Freerolls promotion is open solely to players in Singapore and Malaysia. It’s made up tournaments that are free to enter but boast a $1,000 prize pool at each.

Or how about the Central & Eastern Europe Tournament Leader Board (or TLB for short)? Obviously open solely to players in Eastern and Central Europe this promotion examines your tournament performance on the site for an entire month to place you on a leaderboard where the top winners at the end of the month win special cash and prize awards.

There seems to be a Poker Stars league for nearly every region on the planet as well, with the Norwegian Poker League, Finnish Poker League and Australia and New Zealand Poker League currently running, each sending players to some their regions biggest live events.

Players in Canada can participate in a special Main Event Passport promotion just for Canadian players, offering winners their choice of seats in some of the world’s biggest live events.

There’s the Aftonbladet Sommar series for Swedish players who want to take their shot at seats in Estrellas Poker Tour events. And there’s Druskininkai for Lithiuanian players only, who will be playing for twice the prizes, as all players who win seats in the Druskininkai live event will also play there for a EPT prize package.

Poker Stars Beefs Up Saturday Line-up

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Poker Stars has just beefed up its Saturday Line-up, and as of this Saturday, June 25, 2011 will be offering 7 new tournaments with low buy-ins and high prize pools. The low buy-ins for these new Saturday tournaments at Poker Stars vary from $2.22 to $55. The high buy-ins range from $20K to $50K.

The 7 new tournaments in the PokerStars Saturday Line-Up are as follows:
•    Saturday 6-max at 7 am ET, a NL Hold’em 6-max event with a $22 buy-in and a $30K prize pool
•    Saturday Micro at 8 am ET, a NL Hold’em event with a $3.30 buy-in and a $30K prize pool
•    Saturday Omaha at 9 am ET, a Pot Limit Omaha event with a $55 buy-in and a $30K prize pool
•    Saturday Eliminator at 10 am ET, a NL Hold’em event with a $27 buy-in and a $40K prize pool
•    Saturday Splash at 11 am ET, a NL Hold’em, 3x Turbo rebuy event with a $2.22 buy-in and rebuy and a $50K prize pool
•    Saturday Duel at 3:30 pm ET, a heads up NL Hold’em event with an $11 buy-in and a $20K prize pool
•    Saturday Speedway at 7 pm ET, a NL Hold’em Turbo event with a $33 buy-in and a $50K prize pool

In honor of this inaugural running of the new Saturday Line-up, Poker Stars is holding a special No Lose offer in which all players who bust out of the event before making the money will get a free entry to that same tournament any future Saturday Line-up event by July 16. Players can only get 1 No Lose ticket, so if you play in more than one event this Saturday and don’t cash in at more than one, you’ll get a No Lose ticket worth the value of the highest buy-in you paid for a single event.

Poker Stars Adds $100K First Depositor Freeroll & Announces EPT 8 First-Half Schedule

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For a limited time only, Poker Stars is adding to the incentives for new players to join the site with its $100,000 First Depositor Freerolls. Now, in addition to getting the usual first deposit bonus of 100% up to $600 for joining Poker Stars, the site will give you access to all of the $100,000 First Depositor Freerolls running. But only for the 20-day period running June 14 – July 3, 2011.

Each freeroll has its own guaranteed prize pool of $1,000, with 5 of these freerolls scheduled for each day of the promotional period, making $100,000 guaranteed in all. And the top 20% of the player pool gets paid out, splitting the $1K prize pool, with,

You need only make your first deposit of any amount between June 8 and July 3 using the promo code “100K” and you’ll automatically gain entry to all 100 freerolls (or however many are remaining by the time you do it.)

The freerolls run daily at 6:00 am, 10:00 am, 2:00 pm, 6:00 pm and 10:00 pm ET.

In other Poker Stars news, the site just revealed the scheduled for the first 7 events of the European Tour season 8. It starts in Tallinn, Estonia on August 2 and runs through February 6 in Deauville, France. Included in these first 7 EPT season 8 events are two events deemed part of the famed Festivals of Poker: EPT London starting September 30 and the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure starting January 5, 2012. Buy-ins range from the season opener’s €4,000 + 250 to the PCA’s $10,000 + 300. Poker Stars will be running satellite tournaments leading into each of these EPT season 8 events as they approach.

PokerStars Eureka Poker Tour Goes to the Golden Sands

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There’s a new EPT in town. PokerStars is host and sponsor to many a poker tour, including the European Poker Tour (EPT). And now a new one bearing the same initials joins the list, the Eureka Poker Tour, catering to players from Central Europe and Eastern Europe. Currently the Eureka Poker Tour is scheduled to make stops in Bucharest, Gorica, Nova, Prague, Varna and Zagreb, and Poker Stars is hosting satellites leading up and into each one of them.

The latest set of satellites are for the Eureka Poker Tour Golden Sands, Varna. You can play for one of three different kinds of prize packages: a seat in the tournament plus hotel and expenses (worth €1,400), a seat in the tournament plus expenses, and just a seat in the tournament.

The Eureka Poker Tour Golden Sands takes place June 23 – 26 in Varna, Bulgaria and has a direct buy-in of €800. Satellite opportunities to win free seats in this event include freerolls and VIP satellites. Direct buy-ins into these satellites range from €6.60 to €162.

Freerolls run through June 17 while €1.10 satellite qualifiers run through June 18. The VIP satellites include €3.30 SilverStar and €11 GoldStar events and there are FPP VIP satellite routes as well.

The culmination of the Poker Stars Eureka Poker Tour season, by the way, happens to be the same as the European Poker Tour Prague Main Event, taking place in the Czech Republic from December 5 – 10 for a €5,300 direct buy-in.

The Poker Stars Majors Are Moving: Double Guarantees & Satellites To Celebrate

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Now that the U.S. won’t be contributing the majority of the player pool to the Poker Stars Sunday Majors tournaments, the site is moving the times of those events to be more appealing to the new majority player base: the UK and Europe. As of this Sunday, June 5, 2011, all Sunday Majors tournaments – that’s the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up, Sunday Rebuy, Sunday Storm, Sunday Million, Sunday 500, Sunday Second Chance and Sunday Supersonic events – will be pushed ahead two hours.

That means instead of starting at 1 pm ET, the Sunday Warm-Up will start at 11 am ET. And instead of starting at 4:30 pm ET, the Sunday Million will start at 2:30 pm ET. And so on. (The only Sunday Majors event not to get rescheduled as part of these changes, incidentally, is the Sunday Kick-Off, which will retain its usual 8 pm ET time slot.)

To add a little incentive to show up for this big weekend of major changes, Poker Stars is doubling the guaranteed prize pools for each of these events. Added all together, what you get is a nearly five million dollar weekend. But the double guarantees will be for June 5 only.

PokerStars will also be running satellite tournaments into each of these tournaments all week long leading up the June 5 festivities. To help players practice getting to the tables at the right new times, PokerStars has scheduled each event’s daily satellite at the same hour as the newly scheduled time slot for its respective Sunday Majors event.